Disaster Preparedness and Lessons Learned from the First Wave of COVID-19

Neera Ahuja, MD, FACP

Clinical Professor
Division Chief, Hospital Medicine 
Medical Director, General Inpatient Medicine
Department of Internal Medicine
Stanford University School of Medicine

Rudy Arthofer ACNO, MHA, BSN

Stanford Health Care

Euan Ashley BSc, MB ChB, FRCP, DPhil, FAHA, FACC, FESC

Professor of Medicine & Genetics
Associate Dean, Precision Health
Stanford Medicine

Born in Scotland, Dr. Ashley graduated with 1st class Honors in Physiology and Medicine from the University of Glasgow. He completed medical residency and a PhD in molecular physiology at the University of Oxford before moving to Stanford University where he trained in cardiology and advanced heart failure, joining the faculty in 2006. His group is focused on the science of precision medicine. In 2010, he led the team that carried out the first clinical interpretation of a human genome. The article became one of the most cited in clinical medicine that year and was later featured in the Genome Exhibition at the Smithsonian in DC. Over the following 3 years, the team extended the approach to the first whole genome molecular autopsy, to a family of four, and to a case series of patients in primary care. They now routinely apply genome sequencing to the diagnosis of patients at Stanford hospital where Dr Ashley directs the Clinical Genome Program and the Center for Inherited Cardiovascular Disease. Dr Ashley was the first co-chair of the steering committee of the NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Network. He was a recipient of the National Innovation Award from the American Heart Association and the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. He is part of the winning team of the $75m One Brave Idea competition and co-founder of two genome scale genetic diagnostics companies: Personalis Inc ($PSNL) and Deepcell Inc. He was recognized by the Obama White House for his contributions to Personalized Medicine and in 2018 was awarded the American Heart Association Medal of Honor for Genomic and Precision Medicine. He was appointed Associate Dean in 2019. Father to three young Americans, in his ‘spare’ time, he tries to understand American football, plays the saxophone, and conducts research on the health benefits of single malt Scotch whisky.

Dr. Hany Bahouth, MD

Director, Trauma & Emergency General Surgery
Medical Director of The Teaching Center for Trauma Systems, Emergency and MCS
Rambam Health Care Campus

Dr. Bahouth earned his MD degree from the Hadassah Medical School, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He is a graduate of the General Surgery residency program at Rambam Health Care Campus, and completed a fellowship in Trauma and Critical Care at Ryder Trauma Center, Miami, Florida. Dr. Bahouth is also a lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. His clinical interests include non-operative treatment of splenic injury, antibiotic prophylaxis in trauma, venous thromboembolic events and prophylaxis in trauma. Dr. Bahouth was appointed as Chairman of the Israeli Trauma Society from 2015-2019.

Rafael Beyar, M.D., D.Sc., M.P.H.

Professor Rafael (Rafi) Beyar, is an interventional cardiologist, former director of Rambam Health Care Campus, Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Biomedical Engineering at the Technion and former Dean of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine. Beyar received an MD from Tel Aviv University, DSc in Biomedical Engineering from the Technion, and MPH from the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. His clinical training was at Rambam and Johns Hopkins Cardiology. His research focuses on Cardiovascular Imaging, computer modeling, stents and cardiovascular robotics.  As director he led the construction of the Rambam west campus, including the 2000 bed Fortified Underground Hospital, the Children, Oncology and Cardiology clinical buildings and the health Discovery Tower.   Beyar founded Instent (acquired by Medtronic) and Corindus (Acquired by Siemens Healthineers) , Rambam MedTech (Tech transfer Co) and the  MindUp Incubator (Partnership between Rambam, IBM Medtronic Pitango and Impact First funds).  He is the recipient of multiple national and international prizes and received the Society of  Scholars Medal from Johns Hopkins University. He serves as President, International Friends Associations of  Rambam and is General Partner at Alive Health Care Fund. He serves on Rambam MedTech and several other boards.

Andra Blomkalns, MD, MBA

Redlich Family Professor and Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine
Stanford University School of Medicine

Dr. Andra Blomkalns is a national leader and an innovation advocate who promotes that the best patient-centered programs depend upon clinical practice innovation, continuous data-driven improvement, and interdisciplinary collaboration.  Prior to Stanford, Dr. Blomkalns served as Division Chief of General Emergency Medicine and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs and Business Development at University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW) Department of Emergency Medicine. Reflecting her dual passions for patient care and innovation, she also served on the Intellectual Property Advisory Committee and was the clinical liaison to the Office for Technology Development.  Prior to UTSW, Dr. Blomkalns served as Program Director and later Vice Chair of Education where she trained in Emergency Medicine at the University of Cincinnati. She earned her undergraduate degree from Rice University, medical degree from Louisiana State Health Sciences Center, and also holds and Master’s in Business Administration specializing in innovation and entrepreneurship from the University of Texas.  

Milana Boukhman Trounce MD FACEP MBA

Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine
Director, BioSecurity
Department of Emergency Medicine
Stanford Medical School
Chair, BioSecurity
American College of Emergency Physicians

Dr. Boukhman Trounce graduated from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine and went on to complete her emergency medicine residency and fellowship in Disaster Medicine and Bioterrorism Response at Harvard Medical School. She worked with the Center for Integration of Medicine and Technology (CIMT), a consortium of Harvard teaching hospitals and MIT, where she led BioSecurity related projects in conjunction with the US State Department. She also received her MBA from Stanford Business School.

After Harvard she joined UCSF as an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine and was Medical Director for Disaster Response. For the past 11 years, she has been at Stanford Medical School, where she is a Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine.

She directs the BioSecurity program at Stanford, focused on protecting society from pandemics and other threats posed by infectious organisms, with a specific emphasis on approaches to interrupting transmission of infectious organisms in various settings. The background for the approach is outlined in her briefings at the Hoover Institute (see in publications list below). Stanford BioSecurity facilitates the creation of interdisciplinary solutions by bringing together experts in biology, medicine, public health, disaster management, policy, engineering, technology, and business. https://med.stanford.edu/biosecurity/about.html

At Stanford, over the past ten years she has established and directed a class on BioSecurity and Pandemic Resilience , which examines ways of building global societal resilience to pandemics and other biothreats and has educated over a thousand students. She has also taught an online Harvard course on medical response to biological terrorism, educating thousands of physicians globally.

She has served as a spokeswoman for the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and is a founding Chair of BioSecurity at ACEP. In addition to her academic research and speaking at national conferences, she also consults nationally and internationally to healthcare systems, governments, and other organizations.

Patrice Callagy, RN, MSN, MPA

CEN Executive Director, Emergency Services
Stanford Health Care

Patrice Callagy has worked in Emergency Nursing for over 30 years. Her current title is Executive Director of Emergency Services at Stanford Health Care. She is a Certified Emergency Nurse and is a TNCC instructor.  She is responsible for the operations of the Pediatric and Adult Emergency Department as well as an afterhours Walk In Clinic.  She is credited with implementing unique strategies and innovations to improve patient flow within the Stanford Health Care’s Emergency Department.

Oren Caspi MD PhD

Assistant Professor
Director, Rambam’s Cardiovascular Research and Innovation Unit
Head of Advanced Heart Failure, Cardiology Department and The Laboratory for Cardiovascular Precision Medicine at the Technion

Dr. Caspi is the head of the advanced heart failure in Rambam Health Care Campus and the director of Rambam’s Cardiovascular Research and Innovation Unit. Dr. Caspi is an assistant professor and a principal investigator at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the Clinical Research Institute at Rambam (CRIR).

Dr. Caspi earned his M.D. with honors from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in 2003. He conducted his Ph.D. studies at Prof. Gepstien’s laboratory focusing on strategies for myocardial regeneration using human stem cells. In his studies, he was among the pioneers to demonstrate the ability of human stem cell derived cardiomyocytes to improve myocardial function in the infarcted myocardium and established a technology for forming 3D human vascularized cardiac tissues. For these studies, he was awarded the Zigler prize for regenerative medicine as well as the Neufeld and the Grenadier awards.

Dr. Caspi completed his residency in internal medicine in Rambam medical center where he conducted his general cardiology fellow. He was awarded for the Daniel Shiran award for the best cardiology fellow by the Israel heart association. Dr. Caspi is a graduate of the prestigious program for heart failure expert training at the University of Zurich (UZH) and the European Society of Cardiology. Dr. Caspi was trained in advanced heart failure and mechanical circulatory support at UC San Diego Health. In addition, he complicated focused short-term trainings in both Europe and the United States.

Dr. Caspi current basic research focuses on modeling genetic and acquired cardiomyopathies using the induced pluripotency technology, and on stem cell based myocardial regeneration. Dr. Caspi’s clinical research focuses on optimizing the clinical management of acute heart failure patients using machine learning and causal inference methodologies.

Dr. Caspi has served in Israel’s Home Defense Command as the Chief of Medical Commands preparation for disaster management during the last decade. As the COVID-19 outbreak occurred in Israel, Dr. Caspi’s COVID-19 research team developed a novel system for outbreak identification and healthcare resources allocation. Dr. Caspi launched the first on-line training program for medical teams in Rambam Health Care Campus and later on the training model was adopted by the ministry of health. He served as a member in the core team for planning and managing the underground hospital for COVID-19 patients and He developed the COVID-19 command and communication system (Ex-Teams) together with Elbit Systems. Later on, he headed the Israel’s Ministry of Health (MOH) expert team for COVID-19 crisis hospital preparation and served as an active member managing Israel’s MOH Hospital Crisis management team and edited the Israel’s MOH COVID-19 protocol team. 

Amanda Chawla

Vice President of Supply Chain
Stanford Health Care
Stanford Lucile Packard Health
Stanford-Valley Care

Amanda has over 15+ years as an influential leader across Supply Chain and hospital operations in prominent healthcare organizations managing at Level 1 Trauma, Academic Medical Center, Community Hospital, and Private Practice.  Responsible for over a $1B+ of Non-Labor Spend across the enterprise, she has successfully saved $150M+ in expense reduction through effective sourcing, value engineering, streamlining processes, while building strong clinical and operational alignment.  Prior to joining Stanford, Amanda worked as the Vice President of Ancillary & Support Services with responsibility across clinical and operational departments including Perioperative Services, Imaging, Radiation Oncology, Lab, Environment Services, Food Services, etc.  Her wide ranges of experience in Operational, Executive, and Supply Chain positions allow her to bring the best of all worlds together.  Presently, she serves as the Vice President for Supply Chain at Stanford Healthcare, Stanford Lucile Packard Health, and Stanford-Valley Care.

Ambassador Ron Dermer

Israel’s Ambassador to the United States

Ron Dermer was born and raised in Miami Beach, Florida. He earned a degree in Finance and Management from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from Oxford University. For three years, he was a columnist for the Jerusalem Post.

In 2004, Ron co-authored with Natan Sharansky the best-selling book, The Case For Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror, which has been translated into ten languages. From 2005-2008, Ron served as Israel's Minister of Economic Affairs in the United States.  From 2009-2013, he served as Senior Advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He is married to Rhoda and has five children​.

Lane F. Donnelly, MD

Chief Quality Officer, Stanford Children’s Health
Professor & Associate Dean,
Stanford University School of Medicine

Lane F. Donnelly MD is currently Chief Quality Officer and Christopher G. Dawes Endowed Director of Quality at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford Children’s Health. He is also a Professor of Radiology and Pediatrics and the Associate Dean, Maternal and Child Health (Quality and Safety) in the School of Medicine at Stanford University. He also serves as the Co-Executive Director of Stanford Medicine Center for Improvement.

Dr. Donnelly has been an NIH funded researcher, has published 278 peer review manuscripts that have been cited over 10,000 times and has authored multiple textbooks, including Pediatric Imaging: The Fundamentals, a lead selling text book on pediatric imaging. Many improvement projects for which he was a contributor have received multiple national recognitions including International Quality Radiology Network’s Quality-Improvement in Radiology Practices Paper Competition: Annual Award 2008 (Paper of the Year); Caffey Award – for Outstanding Presented Paper, Society for Pediatric Radiology (2001, 2009, 2011); 2012 British Medical Association Book Awards; Singleton–Taybi Award for Lifetime Achievements in Education, Society for Pediatric Radiology (2009); Journal of the America College of Radiology 2018 Paper of the Year Award; and the 2009 Best Scientific Paper Award - Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and the RSNA Honored Educator Award (2019). Dr. Donnelly has served on the Board of Trustees for both the American Board of Radiology and the Society for Pediatric Radiology.

Former Leadership positions include Radiologist-in-Chief and Frederic N. Silverman Chair of Pediatric Radiology as well as Executive Cabinet member at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (2002-2011); Inaugural Chief Medical Officer / Physician-in-Chief at the Nemours Children’s Hospital (helping plan, staff, and open the greenfield hospital in 2012) and Enterprise Vice President as well as Enterprise Radiologist-in-Chief for the Nemours Foundation (2011-2015); and Chief Quality Officer for Hospital Based Services at Texas Children’s Hospital (2015-2017). He was educated at The Ohio State University and the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

Eyal Fruchter, M.D., M.H.A.

Director, Division of Mental Health
Rambam Health Care Campus

Dr. Fruchter graduated his MD at the Technion medical faculty in Haifa. He studied medicine prior to the military mandatory service and served as a battalion and a brigade doctor in the field, gaining trauma treatments experience under fire. He then did his residence in psychiatry at Haemek hospital and went back to military service as a psychiatry.

Dr. Fruchter focused on both suicide and PTSD prevention and treatment, and contributed to significant research and practical achievements in both fields. He retired from the IDF after 23 years of service, after completing a roll as the chief psychiatry of the IDF and later head of the IDF mental health department (ranking colonel). He also participated as a psychiatrist in the IDF field hospital after the typhoon of 2013 in the Philippines.

After a year as a visiting scholar in the USC in Los Angeles, for mutual learning and teaching at the topic of military mental health and PTSD treatment, he came to Rambam and is for the last 3 years the head of the psychiatry division in the Rambam Health Campus.

Dr. Fruchter is an Assistant Professor of the Technion faculty of medicine and has published many papers and trained many professionals and nonprofessionals on the field of early intervention in the immediate aftermath of a calamity- natural or men made.

Marc Gautreau, MD, MBA

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Marc Gautreau became interested in EMS while working his first summer job as a fire dispatcher at age 16 in his hometown of Saugus. While attending university at UMass Amherst, he joined the Amherst Fire Department as a firefighter and EMT, then became a paramedic shortly after graduating with a degree in journalism. After several years, he decided to go to medical school, graduating in 1995 from the Chicago Medical School, then accepting a residency position back home at UMass Medical School. While in residency he became an air force flight surgeon, and during his EMS fellowship deployed to Germany for 10 months in 2003 as medical director of a field hospital receiving casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon his return, he completed the 2-year EMS and disaster fellowship and a MBA, then assumed a leadership role as chief of the university emergency department at UMass Medical Center. After serving in EMS roles in Massachusetts, he accepted a position as the inaugural chief of the division of Pre-Hospital Care at Stanford University, serving as the medical director of the San Jose Fire Department and supervising eight other physicians in EMS and disaster medicine covering 2 counties, nine cities and one national park.

BG Prof. Elon Glassberg

IDF Surgeon General
Israeli Defense Forces Medical Corps

BG Glassberg graduated from the Ben-Gurion University Medical School (with honors) in 1996, was awarded a Doctorate of Medicine and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Medical Corps of the Israel Defense Forces. He was appointed as a medical officer of the "Egoz" Special Forces unit in the "Golani" infantry Brigade, where he served as the senior medical officer until 2001, when he was appointed as a flight surgeon and a medical commander in the Israeli Air Force. BG Glassberg was later appointed to be the chief medical officer of the Fire Division and served as the division surgeon during the second Lebanon war in 2006. Between the years 2010-2014, BG Glassberg served as Head of the Trauma & Combat Medicine Branch, including during operations "Cast Lead" and "Protective Edge" in Gaza. BG Glassberg helped to conceptualize and lead the implementation of the IDF's 10-year strategic force generation plan, focusing on the elimination of preventable death. This plan is known as "My Brother's Keeper". BG Glassberg is a board-certified general surgeon that served as the Israeli Defense Forces Liaison to the Committee on Tactical Combat Casualty Care, is an ATLS instructor and a member of the board of the Israeli Trauma Association. He is also a member of the steering committee of the Trauma, Homeostasis and Oxygenation Research Network (THOR, an international collaboration aimed at promoting and improving Damage Control Resuscitation in the pre-hospital settings).

BG Glassberg is a Professor of Surgery at the Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee (Bar-Ilan University) and an Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, USA (USUHS).

BG Glassberg is an expert in pre-hospital trauma care and military medicine and an active researcher that publishes extensively in leading journals.

BG Glassberg took a leading part in several humanitarian rescue missions performed by the IDF Medical Corps throughout the world. He has serves as a flight surgeon in the Airborne Search & Rescue unit since 1999 and has participated in numerous operations and medical evacuations. From 2013 until 2017, BG Glassberg has been involved in the Israeli humanitarian aid mission to the victims of the Syrian civil war.

Between 2014 and 2017 BG Glassberg served as the Chief Surgeon of the Northern Command. Between Feb 2017 and Aug 2019, BG Glassberg served as the head of the Israeli Defense Forces Medical Department and Commander of the IDF Medical Services. From Aug 2019 to Sep 2020 BG Glassberg was the head of the IDF Health Administrative Division.

In Sep 2020, BG Glassberg was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and resides as the IDF Surgeon General. BG Glassberg lives in Petach Tikva with his wife and 3 children.

Dr. Michael Halberthal, MD, MHA

Assistant Professor (Clin. Edu.) – Technion Medical Faculty
Director General & CEO
Chairman of The Teaching Center for Trauma Systems, Emergency and MCS
Rambam Health Care Campus

Dr. Michael (Miki) Halberthal was born in Tel Aviv in 1958, He is married and the father of four.
Dr. Halberthal earned his MD in 1986, from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. His postgraduate training was completed at Rambam Health Care campus in Pediatrics and Pediatric Critical Care. As one of Rambam's leading postgraduate trainees, Dr. Halberthal was chosen to pursue a further subspecialty fellowship in Pediatric Cardiac Clinical Care at the world-renowned Brompton & Harefield Institute in London, U.K. After returning to Israel, Dr. Halberthal successfully established the Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Service at Rambam, which continues to be one of the most active and successful services of its kind. In 1996, Dr. Halberthal completed a combined advanced clinical and research fellowship at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children in Canada. In addition to numerous hospital activities, Dr. Halberthal completed his MHA in Health and Hospital Administration at Tel Aviv University's Recanati School of Business Administration (2012).

Since 2001, Dr. Halberthal has held various professional leadership positions at Rambam, including serving as the Director of Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care, Director of Hospital-wide Emergency Triage, and Senior Staff Physician in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of Rambam. In 2009, he joined the Executive Leadership at Rambam and as the Director of Medical Operations. At the end of 2013 Dr. Halberthal was appointed Deputy Director of Rambam, primarily responsible for medical human resources; allied medical services; safety, quality, and risk management; emergency preparedness and the international trauma school. In 2019 Dr. Halberthal was appointed Director of Rambam Health Care Campus.

Dr. Halberthal recently completed over 30 years of service in the Israel Defense Forces Airborne Rescue and Evacuation Unit. He was actively involved in the coordination of international civilian air rescue and transport of emergency care patients.

Dr. Halberthal is active in research and has published scholarly articles in the areas of hospital management, pediatric critical care, trauma and mass casualty preparedness, and airborne medicine. He is an active and highly regarded lecturer and teacher to medical students, residents and fellows, nursing staff and students, and allied health professionals in those domains of expertise.

Kathy Harris

Director of the Office of Emergency Management
Stanford Health Care
Stanford Children’s Health 

Kathy Harris is the Director of the Office of Emergency Management serving Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children’s Health. Recent projects include facilitating the transition of hospital communications from color codes to plain language, supporting the activation of two new hospitals and several outpatient sites, designing and directing emergency exercises, and coordinating response to numerous emergency incidents. Her interest in emergency management was first sparked while volunteering with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in Waveland, Mississippi, and has since included working with the City and County of San Francisco, Stanford University, the University of Oregon, and the Environmental Protection Agency Risk Management Program. She holds a Master’s degree in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Emory University.

Khetam Hussein, M.D.

Head of infection control unit and Keter departments
Rambam Health Care Campus

Dr. Khetam Hussein was born in Rama village in 1974, She is married and the mother of Two.
Dr. Hussein earned her MD in 2000, from the Hebrew University. Her postgraduate training was completed at Rambam Health Care campus in internal medicine and Infectious diseases. Recently she has finished EUCIC training program on infection control and hospital epidemiology conducted by European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID).  Dr. Hussein was nominated for Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Ambassador Program in 2015.She is very active in ESCMID committees and currently serve as a member of the ESCMID Guidelines Subcommittee. Since 2019 she also serves as consultant on infection control for the head of ministry of health hospitals.

Since March 2020 Dr. Hussein is the head of Keter (Corona).

Since 2011, Dr. Hussein has developed the infection control unit at RHCC and worked to improve the infection control practices at the hospital.

Dr. Hussein is an Assistant Professor of the Technion faculty of medicine and has published many papers in leading professional journals on the field of multidrug resistant pathogens, hospital acquired infections and infection control. She is responsible for teaching the subject of infection control in the Technion faculty of medicine and trained many students on the field of infectious diseases and infection control

Gila Hyams, RN, MA

Director of Nursing
Director of The Teaching Center for Trauma Systems, Emergency and MCS
Rambam Health Care Campus

Mrs. Gila Hyams is the Chairman of the Nursing Directors Association in Israel since 2018 and the Director of Nursing at Rambam since 2015.

Director of The Teaching Center for Trauma, Emergency and Mass Casualty Situations (MCS) at Rambam Health Care Campus since 1999 and the Trauma Coordinator of Rambam’s Trauma Unit

Mrs. Hyams received her BA (RN) from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem and Assaf Harofeh Medical Center School of Nursing, Tzrifin, in 1990, followed by an MA in Nursing from Tel Aviv University (2002) and Diploma of expertise in policy and administration from the Ministry of Health (2018).

Mrs. Hyams has coordinated fifteen international courses on developing and organizing a trauma system and mass casualty situation (MCS) organization. In addition, she has organized and led workshops and courses to advance development of local emergency and trauma systems in Italy, Malta, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Portugal, Latvia, Estonia, Croatia, Puerto Rico, U.S.A., Chile, India, and Thailand.

In April 2005, Mrs. Hyams coordinated the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Mass Casualty Situations held in Haifa, Israel. Since then, two other NATO courses were held at Rambam, one in November, 2009 and another one in November 2014. The 2014 course was Hospitals Under Fire—Operating Hospitals Under Extreme Circumstances.  

Among her public activities, Mrs. Hyams is a member of the Israel National Trauma Council and has collaborated with the Israel Trauma Society in forming the Ten Definitive Surgical Trauma Care (DSTC) Courses. She also established and organized the Israeli Trauma Mass Casualty Nursing Courses.

Saraswati Kache, MD

Clinical Professor of Pediatrics
Medical Director - Pediatric Critical Care Transport Services
Medical Director - SCH Transfer Center 
Division of Critical Care, Department of Pediatrics
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford 
Stanford School of Medicine 

Debra Kaysen, Ph.D., ABPP

Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Stanford University
President, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies

Debra Kaysen is a clinical psychologist and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Dr. Kaysen is currently the President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (www.istss.org). Dr. Kaysen’s area of specialty both in research and clinical work is in treatment for those who have experienced traumatic events including treatment of PTSD and related disorders. She has conducted critical studies on treatment of PTSD and/or substance use across a variety of populations (sexual minority women, Native Americans, sexual assault survivors, torture survivors, active duty military) and in a variety of settings (the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, primary care, rural settings), with an emphasis on increasing access to care. Recent work conducted by Dr. Kaysen has focused on ways to address the mental health effects of COVID-19 on healthcare workers to decrease long-term harms associated with stressors from the pandemic. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the Department of Defense, PCORI, and USAID. Dr. Kaysen's work has been featured in major media outlets such as the Washington Post, New York Times, NPR, The Hill, the Economist, and on This American Life.

Alison M. Kerr, RN, MSN

Chief Administrative Officer, Clinical Operations
Stanford Health Care

Alison Marie Kerr joined Stanford University Medical Center, September 1991 as a clinical nurse, and has risen through the ranks of hospital leadership to her current role as Chief Administrative Officer, Clinical Operations. Alison oversees the Neuroscience Service Line, Orthopedic Service Line, Emergency Department, Trauma, Lab and Pharmacy services and the Office of Emergency Management reporting to the Chief Operating Officer.

Alison is responsible for the management and design of the Neuroscience & Orthopedic Service Lines across the continuum of outpatient to inpatient services with the overall objective of improving throughput, operational and financial efficiencies and delivering a superior patient experience. Additional areas of responsibility include the Emergency Department, Trauma, Stanford Blood Center, Pharmacy services and the Office of Emergency Management; taking the position of the Planning Chief for the Stanford Hospital Incident Command Center. She also oversees the Laboratory operations which is currently providing executive direction as Stanford Medicine assists the community in COVID-19 testing.

Dr. Christopher Kirchhoff

Senior Fellow
Schmidt Futures

Dr. Kirchhoff began his career on staff of the Space Shuttle Columbia Accident Investigation. After helping analyze the breakdown of safety culture inside NASA, he went on to write the U.S. government history, Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience, coined “The Iraq Pentagon Papers” by the New York Times.

During the Obama Administration, Kirchhoff served as an aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as Senior Advisor to Presidential Counselor John Podesta, and as Director of Strategic Planning for the National Security Council. He led both the Chairman’s Initiatives Team and the NSC’s Strategic Planning Small Group, working on issues ranging from how technology will change the future of security to the design of Operation United Assistance, which deployed 3,000 U.S. service members to end the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Kirchhoff also helped create and lead the Pentagon’s Silicon Valley Office, Defense Innovation Unit X, which harnesses emerging commercial technology for national security innovation.

After the Administration, Kirchhoff taught on “Public Leadership in a Technological Age” at Harvard’s Institute of Politics.

He has been awarded the Civilian Service Medal for hazardous duty in Iraq and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Service. From 2011 to 2015, he was the highest-ranking openly gay advisor in the U.S. military.

Kirchhoff graduated with highest honors in History and Science from Harvard College and holds a doctorate in politics from Cambridge University, where he was a Gates Scholar.

Christina Kong, MD

Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs & Professor of Pathology
Stanford University

Steven Lin, MD

Clinical Associate Professor
Vice Chief, Technology Innovation
Medical Director, Stanford Family Medicine

Dr. Lin is an expert clinician, educator, researcher, and administrator in the specialty of family medicine. He earned his MD from Stanford University School of Medicine and completed his medical training at Stanford’s family medicine residency program. He has received numerous national awards and is recognized among the top family physicians in the United States.

Dr. Lin is the Medical Director of Stanford Family Medicine and the Vice Chief for Technology Innovation in the Division of Primary Care and Population Health at Stanford. He is the founder of 3 nationally recognized programs – the O’Connor-Stanford Leaders in Education Residency Program, the Stanford Medical Scribe Fellowship, and the Stanford Healthcare AI Applied Research Team.

Dr. Lin is the author of over 200 scholarly works and conference presentations. His research covers a wide range of primary care topics. His current focus is on artificial intelligence in medicine. Dr. Lin is an expert consultant and mentor to technology companies in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia.

Yvonne (Bonnie) A. Maldonado, MD

Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Diversity
Professor of Pediatrics and of Epidemiology and Population Health Chief, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases
Stanford University School of Medicine
Medical Director, Infection Prevention and Control and Attending Physician
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford 

Yvonne (Bonnie) A. Maldonado, MD, is Professor and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California. She is also the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Diversity at the Stanford School of Medicine.  Dr. Maldonado attended Stanford University School of Medicine, where she completed a Pediatric internship.  She was a Pediatric resident and fellow in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins Hospital.  Dr. Maldonado then served as an Officer in the Public Health Service in the Epidemiology Intelligence Service (EIS) for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she was awarded the Alexander D. Langmuir Prize, named in honor of the founder of the EIS Program. She has led a number of NIH, CDC, USAID, Gates Foundation and WHO funded domestic and international pediatric vaccine studies, as well as studies in prevention and treatment of perinatal HIV infection in the US, India, Mexico and Africa.  With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic she has over 10 clinical, epidemiology and laboratory-based studies in this area and is involved in epidemiologic modeling at the University, state and national level.  She is the Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases, a member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society for Pediatric Research, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, and the American Public Health Association.  She of member of the Board of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, a liaison to the USPHS Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and previously a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the Office of Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Dr. Maldonado has been the director of two federally funded T32 training grants in Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology and has devoted substantial effort to teaching and training activities at Stanford University as well as in the national and international setting, including undergraduates, medical students, postdoctoral students, and infectious diseases fellows.  Dr. Maldonado has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals and is co-editor of the textbooks “Remington and Klein Infectious Diseases of the Fetus and Newborn Infant” and “Report of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases (Red Book)”.

Within the Dean’s office at the School of Medicine, Dr. Maldonado has served as the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Diversity since 2014, leading the School of Medicine’s diversity efforts.  In that role she has oversight of for Associate Deans, including the Associate Dean of Medical School Admissions, ensuring that there is a commitment to enhance medical student diversity. In addition, she is the PI of the NIMHD-funded Stanford Precision Health for Ethnic and Racial Equity Center (SPHERE), one of the first national centers focused specifically on using precision-medicine tools to improve the health of underserved ethnic and racial groups. Her hope is to bring her expertise and resources in this role to promote diversity, inclusion and equity in the academic workforce.

Jose Maldonado, MD

Medical Director, Psychosomatic Medicine Service
Stanford Hospital and Clinic

Dr. Maldonado is Medical Director of Psychosomatic Medicine and Chief of Psychiatric Emergency Services and Transplant Psychiatry at Stanford University Medical Center. He is board certified in Adult Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine, Forensic Psychiatry, Addiction Medicine, and Forensic Medicine. He is Chair of the Stanford School of Medicine – Faculty Senate and President of the American Delirium Society.

His research lab developed the Stanford Integrated Psychosocial Assessment for Transplantation (SIPAT) a tool created to assess the psychosocial candidacy of organ transplant and ventricular assisted devices (VADs) candidates. In addition, his research has led the field of Psychosomatic Medicine with the development of tools for the prediction and assessment of various neuropsychiatric disorders; including the development of a new tool for the timely and accurate diagnosis of delirium: the Stanford Proxy Test of Delirium (S-PTD); the Stanford Algorithm for Predicting Delirium (SAPD), a tool to help predict patients at risk for developing delirium; and the Prediction of Alcohol Withdrawal Severity Scale (PAWSS). He has developed management protocols and algorithms for the prevention and treatment of delirium; as well as novel pharmacological techniques (benzodiazepine-sparing protocol) for the prophylaxis and treatment of complicated alcohol withdrawal syndromes.

Dr Maldonado has been the recipient of multiple awards and recognitions, including: the 2004 – Dlin/Fischer Award for significant achievement in clinical research from the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine for work on reduction of post-operative and critical care delirium; the 2009 – Dorfman Award for Best Original Research from the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine for development of the Stanford Integrate Psychosocial Assessment for Transplantation (SIPAT); the 2014 – Dlin/Fischer Award for significant achievement in clinical research from the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine for the development of the Prediction of Alcohol Withdrawal Severity Scale (PAWSS); the 2014 – Herbert Spiegel Award for Hypnosis Research from the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University & New York State Psychiatric Institute; the 2016 – Sawlow Memorial Award on Neuroscience from the Oregon Health & Science University for his work on the pathophysiology and management of delirium; the 2017 – Franz-Köhler-Inflammation-Award from the German Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (DGAI) for extraordinary achievements in research on inflammation and its relationship to the pathophysiology of delirium; and the 2018 – Eleanor and Thomas P. Hackett Memorial Award by the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, the Academy’s highest honor, for distinctive achievements in CLP training, research, clinical practice, and leadership.

M. Meredith Masters, MD

Medical Director, Office of Emergency Management
Stanford Health Care

Lloyd B. Minor

Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean
Stanford University School of Medicine

Lloyd B. Minor, MD, is a scientist, surgeon, and academic leader. He is the Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine, a position he has held since December 2012. He also is a professor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and a professor of Bioengineering and of Neurobiology, by courtesy, at Stanford University.

As dean, Dr. Minor plays an integral role in setting strategy for the clinical enterprise of Stanford Medicine, an academic medical center that includes the Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford Health Care, and Stanford Children’s Health and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. With his leadership, Stanford Medicine has established a strategic vision to lead the biomedical revolution in Precision Health, a fundamental shift to more proactive and personalized health care that empowers people to lead healthy lives. His book, “Discovering Precision Health,” published in 2020, highlights how biomedical advances are dramatically improving our ability to treat and cure complex diseases.

Before coming to Stanford, Dr. Minor was provost and senior vice president for academic affairs of Johns Hopkins University. Prior to his appointment as provost in 2009, Dr. Minor served as the Andelot Professor and director (chair) of the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and otolaryngologist-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

With more than 160 published articles and chapters, Dr. Minor is an expert in balance and inner ear disorders. In the medical community, Dr. Minor is perhaps best known for his discovery of superior canal dehiscence syndrome, a debilitating disorder characterized by sound- or pressure-induced dizziness. He subsequently developed a surgical procedure that corrects the problem and alleviates symptoms.

In 2012, Dr. Minor was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

Eben Rosenthal, MD

Medical Director
Stanford Cancer Center

Eben Rosenthal is a surgeon-scientist and academic leader. He is currently serving as the John and Ann Doerr Medical Director of the Stanford Cancer Center, a position he has held since July 2015. He works collaboratively with the Stanford Cancer Institute and Stanford Health Care leaders to set the strategy for the clinical delivery of cancer care across Stanford Medicine and growing cancer networks.

Before coming to Stanford, he learned his surgical skills in otolaryngology from the University of Michigan and traveled west for further training in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Oregon Health and Science University. He joined the faculty at University of Alabama at Birmingham where he started as an Assistant Professor of Surgery within the Division of Otolaryngology. In 2012, Dr. Rosenthal became Division Director of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery and the holder of the John S. Odess Endowed Chair at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He moved to Stanford in 2015 to become the Ann and John Doerr Medical Director of the Stanford Cancer Center.

Dr. Rosenthal is certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology and is a Diplomat of the American Board of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He specializes in the treatment and reconstruction of head and neck cancer patients. He has a strong interest in development of new strategies to surgically repair complex head and neck defects to improve functional and cosmetic outcomes.

He has published over 160 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, authored many book chapters and published a book on optical imaging in cancer. He is on the editorial board of Head & Neck and The Laryngoscope and is also a charter member of the NIH Developmental Therapeutics Study Section. Dr. Rosenthal has performed preclinical and clinical research on the role of targeted therapies for use to treat cancer alone and in combination with conventional therapy. He has served as principal investigator on several early phase investigator-initiated and industry sponsored clinical trials in molecular oncology. He has received grant funding from the American Cancer Society, NIH/NCI and NIH/NIDCR to study the role of targeted therapy and novel imaging strategies in cancer.

Dr. Rosenthal has conducted bench to bedside development of optical contrast agents to identify cancer in the operating room. He led a multidisciplinary team of scientists through successful IND application to allow testing of fluorescently labeled antibodies in the clinic and operating room. These early phase clinical trials have demonstrated that this technique can visualize microscopic cancer in the operating room and may significantly improve clinical outcomes.

Christopher Sharp, M.D.

Clinical Professor of Medicine
Stanford School of Medicine
Chief Medical Information Officer
Stanford Health Care

Dr. Sharp serves as the Chief Medical Information Officer at Stanford Health Care, where he is a physician leader in the use of innovative clinical technology to support patient care and clinician wellness.

Dr. Sharp has responsibility for driving the enhancement, expansion, and usability of clinical information systems for providers and digital health engagement for patients.  Dr. Sharp's team oversees the clinical content, design, workflow, proficiency and adoption of clinical information systems and digital health strategy.  As Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine, he maintains an active ambulatory and inpatient practice and serves as a mentor for the Stanford Clinical Informatics Fellowship.

Education and Certifications

Undergraduate: Northwestern University

Medical School: Dartmouth Medical School

Residency: Stanford University Medical School

Certifications: Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine, Clinical Informatics Subspecialty, American Board of Preventive Medicine

Prof. Itay Shavit

Director of the Pediatric Emergency Department
Rambam Health Care Campus

Professor Itai Shavit is the chair of the Israeli Society of Pediatric Emergency Medicine and the Director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at Rambam Health Care Campus. He is an associate professor at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine of the Technion University in Haifa, Israel. Prof. Shavit has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in leading international journals such as JAMA, Annals of Emergency Medicine, Resuscitation, Pediatrics, and JAMA Pediatrics.

Sam Shen, MD

Vice Chair, Clinical Operations and Quality, Department of Emergency Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine

Sam Shen is Clinical Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Clinical Operations and Quality in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University.  At Stanford Health Care, he serves in the role of Patient Safety Officer/Associate Chief Quality Officer. Previously he held positions as Chief of Emergency Medicine at community hospitals in Massachusetts.  Dr. Shen received his undergraduate degree at Stanford University and his MD and MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles.  His emergency medicine residency was completed at Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. 

Dr. Shen’s academic interests include digital health, process improvement, quality improvement and patient safety.

Katherine Staats, MD

Imperial County EMS Medical Director
Santa Clara County Fire Medical Director
Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine
Stanford Health Care

Katherine Staats, MD is an emergency medicine physician, dual boarded certified in Emergency Medicine, and Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Dr. Staats began her medical education during college, where she practiced as an EMT with the Virginia Tech Rescue Squad.  She completed her medical school training in the Bronx, NY at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and her residency at UT Austin in Texas. From there, Staats’ prehospital experience led her to pursue a fellowship in EMS and Disaster Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). During fellowship, Dr. Staats worked in Imperial County at El Centro Regional Medical Center as an ER physician, and their Base Station Medical Director. Since 2018 Dr. Staats has served as the Imperial County EMS Medical Director. Since fellowship, Staats has presented at local and national conferences on prehospital treatment, high performance CPR, transgender care, and the necessity of diversity in EMS. Dr. Staats strives to innovate and improve how prehospital care is practiced, and her EMS foci include: high performance CPR, disaster preparedness, and recruitment and retention of minorities in EMS.

David Svec M.D., M.B.A.  

Clinical Associate Professor, Stanford School of Medicine
Chief Medical Officer at Stanford Health Care – ValleyCare

David Svec M.D., M.B.A. is a Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford School of Medicine.  He completed his joint M.D./M.B.A. degree at Case Western Reserve University and then completed his Internship and Residency at Stanford University.  He has been an academic hospitalist at Stanford since 2012. He is the Chief Medical Officer at Stanford Health Care – ValleyCare.  He started the hospitalist team at Stanford Health Care – ValleyCare and also served as the Section Chief from 2015-2018.  He has been the Director of the Stanford Medicine Consult and Procedure Team at Stanford, a Core Residency Faculty Member, a member of the Department of Medicine Quality Council, and a member of the SHC Bylaws Committee.  He has been recognized for his teaching, receiving the David A Rytand Clinical Teaching Award, the Arthur L Bloomfield Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching and the Lawrence Mathers Award for exceptional commitment to teaching in Medical Student  education.  He has mentored multiple quality improvement projects of the Stanford Healthcare Consulting Group and his research focuses on high value care.

N. Kenji Taylor, MD MSc AAHIVS

Family Medicine Physician
Stanford University School of Medicine

Dr. Taylor was born and raised in rural Kansas and Pennsylvania, the youngest of four children. He headed to the big city of Providence, RI to study Neuroscience, East Asian Studies and Entrepreneurship at Brown University. Following graduation, his short-lived career in finance took him to Los Angeles, London and Tokyo, before he decided medicine was how he could directly help others who needed it the most. He attended the University of Pennsylvania where he developed a passion for health disparities, social justice and community medicine in West Philadelphia. As a medical student, he founded the nationally-recognized Cut Hypertension Program (www.cuthypertension.org), a blood pressure screening, education and referral program partnered with African American barbershops. He completed residency and chief residency at UCSF prior to joining the Stanford faculty and Stanford-Intermountain Fellowship in Population Health, Delivery Science, and Primary Care.

Dr. Taylor is a family physician, researcher, implementer, activist and educator. He is excited about the potential for innovative care models, financing and technology to improve the health of underserved populations. He is also interested in HIV primary care, mentoring black men of color in medicine and medical education in community clinics. In addition to his primary care practice at Stanford Family Medicine, Dr. Taylor provides HIV, MAT and Hep C treatment at the Roots Community Health Center in East Oakland where he also leads the community health navigator program for complex care patients.

For fulfillment outside of medicine, he loves being a new dad, plays the violin, travels, spends time outdoors and enjoys cooking with friends and family.

Idan Yelin, Ph.D.

Head of the Pathogen Genomics Research at the Kishony lab, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

Location

The 2020 Stanford-Rambam Symposium is a virtual event that will be livecast Nov 9 - Nov 11, 2020 from 7:30am–10am PT (5:30pm–8pm IT). The livestream link will be posted on the website prior to the event and links to the recorded presentations will also be available on the website a few weeks after the event.

Registration

Registration is strongly encouraged in order to receive important communication regarding the symposium. There is no registration fee.

Recordings

Recordings of the 2020 Symposium will be available on the website a few weeks after the event.

Disability Accommodations

If you need a disability-related accommodation to participate in our event, please contact the Diversity & Access Office at phone: (650) 725-0326 or email: disability.access@stanford.edu. Requests should be made by November 5th

Additional Information

Please contact stanford-rambam-collaboration@stanford.edu for all additional symposium inquiries.

Continuing medical education (CME) credits will be available for attendees viewing the live webcast. Information on claiming CME credit will be provided each day of the symposium.

Accreditation

The Stanford University School of Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

Credit Designation

The Stanford University School of Medicine designates this Live Activity for a maximum of 7 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits^TM.  Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.